Feeding Dawn Redwood 'Gold Rush'

16 years ago

My 5 feet tall, once inch caliper trunked 'Gold Rush' tree seems to be stuck at one phase in its releaf process.

During our Easter freeze I had covered the tree. The first night of freeze stressed the tree, but the second night of freeze seemed to throw it into a pattern of going dormant. Once the temps began to stay above freezing, I removed the wrapping, and not too many days later, the tree appeared to be going dormant. It took a couple weeks for it to drop its leaves. Then almost immediately two leaves emerged on its lowest branches. Last week the green nubs which had also formed along its trunk and branches began to plump up like they should leaf out. We have had lots of rain over the last two weeks, and still the buds seem to be in the same stage as last week.

Is there any thing I need to do to help the tree continue to progress with its releafing? Also, once the leaves do emerge should I feed the tree with a non burning acidic fertilizer, like holly tone or a less acidic fertilzer like Osmocote? If not is there a different way I should feet it?

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Comments (3)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
16 years ago
i have 2 plain old DR ... both frost/freezed for their first 4 years ... thought they were going to die ... just kept reflushing and growing like the weeds they are .... they looked dead for weeks before they got their act together .....

i have lost 4 gold rush.. and will not try again ...

patience is all you need ... it will either reflush or die ... i hope the former ...

other than keeping it properly watered.. nothing is recommended .... do NOT fertilize ....

good luck .. ken
katrina1
Original Author
16 years ago
And Growing like the weeds they are? Wow.

I hope my Gold Rush does not leave me with that opion of it after it has established and grown 4 years for me.

I went out in the rain this afternoon to get a 15 gallon potted weeping yaupon holly and planted it at my daughter's house. While at the nursery, I also found a banana tree ( a Chinese cultivar) which is reported as hardy enough to survive our winters. Well after planting the Yaupon and returning home, I planted the banana tree directly in the high clay content soil next to a privacy fence underwhich lots of rain runoff from our neighbor's yard enters ours. The Gold Rush is planted in a slight mound very close to that area. So the cleanup area for my tools was very close the Gold Rush. That is when I noticed, finally the buds have changed and now there are actually baby leaves emerging from most of them. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Yesterday, I applied some Osmocote, and was hoping that I did not give it the wrong thing. I know the general advice is that trees do not need to be fertilized, but since the tree seemed to be struggling so long to make leaves for making food for its roots, and since there has been so many cloudy days these last two weeks, I figured the tree needed some help.

I still do not know if the tree is being benefited by the Osmocote though, or if it would have change for the better today even if I had not given it the slow release 19-6-12 fertilizer, which only allows about 5% of the nitrogen dosage as it slowly releases.
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Horseman, your question about the growth rate is similar to what I am wondering. My tree has not added any height at all since it was planted last year. Neither does the trunk seemed to have thicken enough for me to perceive, if at all. If the late winter freeze issues had not distracted me, I would have been posting questions about the slow growth rate. Yesterday, I read on a website describing the cultivar, that the 'Gold Rush' cultivar does grow slower than the species. My 'Gold Rush' has a clean trunk about 3 feet up before the trunk forks of into two thin, flexible and arching, but still slightly branched and well leafed out trunks which makes up the canopy of the tree. It looks to me that the only reason the trunk is not branching out lower on the trunk is due to the way the grower pruned and trained the tree prior to shipping it to me. I planted mine in mid May of last year, and yes in the heat and drought of the summer the leaves did tend to want to turn brown. Whenever I saw the slightest amount of browning in the leaves, I would water the tree well, and each time, the leaves responded quickly, by changing again to their nice bright healthy color. Currently the leaves of my 'Gold Rush' look golden, and I can see some of the healthy bright green of the cultivar's normal spring leaf color trying to emerge from the base of those golden colored leaves.
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It's about time GW has zones appearing after our names. I requested they add that as well as soil type a few years back but never heard back from them. Thanks coniflora. For my behalf I had either forgotten a grafted plant kept characteristics (probably slim margins in all cases though, I would have to think) ..easier. Anyway, that's maybe my favorite thing in the world to do. Grafting that is. Dax P.s. And Noki, you pick up the pace real quickly. Just like becoming a BMX racer! And other times, you do have to work with the wood until you're satisfied everything is a go. Some grafts take me 5 minutes each. Those darn ones with the tiny wood are difficult to hold onto as well and that's on top of just the finicky ones in general. Then there's the ones where your blade cuts right through the entire understock! that one tees me off. Then there's the a to the b to c to the d .... you're always adjusting to occomodate. It's a lot of common sense technique-wise it becomes apparent rather fast. And there are no rules if you would please allow me to say when you understand what it's going to take to get those two wounds to ajoin.
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I can tell...you remind me of me! They really are stunning. I first saw them just a few months ago at TLC in OKC. I was looking around for J. maples and a weeping mulberry and then I saw that chartreause green out of the corner of my eye and had to go check it out. That's when I saw the bark! Then I thought..."well, the "needles" MUST be really sharp"...so I shook hands with it and they were really soft. I totally agree that they are just gorgeous. I do wonder if they keep a nice shape when they get bigger though. I'm not crazy about that pyramid shape that I think is expected with them. But I guess some pruning could be done. *sigh* so many trees and so little space, time, and money. If i could grow a banyan tree in Oklahoma I'd be in heaven. -MB
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There are dealers selling Gold Rush on the auction site but like Brandon mentioned..........you cannot be assured of a true plant. A cutting would be wonderful. I'll keep on looking. One other thing....what's up with all the pop ups on the Gardening site....? I have gotten about 6 or 8 since I logged in......what a pain. thanks
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
16 years ago
osmocote requires water and heat to activate ... it will give a small amount fast.. then the rest later ..as far as i understand...

you should be ok .. presuming you used it in moderation .... ken

Feeding Dawn Redwood 'Gold Rush'

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

katrina1
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Feeding Dawn Redwood 'Gold Rush'

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

katrina1Original Author

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katrina1
Original Author